Memeorandum

November 19, 2018

If Money Talks...

For Democratic strategists eager to advance a younger nominee contrasting with President Donald Trump, O’Rourke’s appeal rests on his perceived ability to bridge a gulf within the party — between Democratic contenders who are older but come with pre-existing donor networks, and Democrats who are younger but have not yet developed a substantial fundraising base. O’Rourke, at 46, has both.

I've said many times that Republicans want to nominate Ike or Reagan. hence the preference for elder statesmen such as Bush 41, Bob Dole, McCain '08 (but not the 2000 insurgent!), Romney '12, etc.

Democrats, on the other hand, are desperate to nominate a young, energetic, telegenic John Kennedy. Or Robert. But definitely young, in part because older normally means Positions Taken and Factions Alienated - Bill Clinton and Barack Obama had the blank slate thing working for them. John Kerry was a bit of an exception but since he had been a stealth Senator he was virtually free of legacy barnacles. Hillary of course was the Establishment "We Owe You One" pick and we saw how that worked out (She won the popular vote!).

...I know I’m repeating myself, but it is just remarkable how the definition of a conservative for many people is primarily measured by support for Trump and/or hatred of Trump’s critics. My disagreements with Bill are entirely tactical and tonal, but I am at a loss to understand how any of my disagreements make him any less of a conservative today than he was five or 15 years ago. Bill Kristol is a conservative. About the people who say he isn’t one just because he won’t say the un-obvious, I’m not so sure.

I won't tell you to read the whole thing because it is so poorly written, in addition to being so dishonestly full of straw men, but once you finish that, tell me how much you think Soros is funding Jonah to.

OK, finally caught up, and now off to dinner with my Bro and SIL just up to visit their grandkids, and once again I'm the guy who started the Jonah Goldberg criticism so all push back in defense of Jonah please direct at me. Cheerio.

Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of emails to Trump administration staffers and officials through her personal email, in violation of federal records rules, the Washington Post reported Monday. The Post said the president's daughter, who is an unpaid White House employee, sent the government-related emails during 2017, and when confronted about it said she was unfamiliar with the federal records rules. The private email was on a domain she shared with her husband, White House adviser Jared Kushner, the Post said. During the 2016 campaign, President Donald Trump repeatedly attacked Hillary Clinton for using a private email server. A spokesman for Ivanka Trump's attorney told the Post that the emails in question have been turned over for government archiving, and said they did not contain classified information.

"I said this to people before," he said. "If you had to be born at any moment in human history and you didn't know ahead of time whether you'd be black, white, Asian, Latino, you didn't know whether you — what country you would be from — or you're male or female or gay or straight. And you just said — alright, well you're blind, you're behind a veil. When do you want to be born?"

"You'd choose now," he said, adding, "Or maybe two years ago."

Laughter and cheers in the audience ensued, and Obama said afterward he was only teasing. "That was a joke," he said.

The @WhiteHouse is getting ready for the Christmas season! Thank you to the Smith Family & the National Christmas Tree Association for providing this year's tree. And to our @NatlParkService for their hard work in trimming the tree for the Blue Room. pic.twitter.com/jiyYBwCeXO

Btw, I think I'm officially a Latino. No kidding. My grandfather was born in Sao Paolo, Brazil. He spoke Portuguese and my father also spoke Portuguese. They were both Italian, but I'm pretty sure I'm legally a Latino.

that Casey Kasem post demands an immedaite link to the audio of him going barshit crazy over the death of Snuggles the dog. please somebody take care of that essential duty for JOMers verywhere. i cant since im driving.

Wiki says a Latino is someone from Latin America, while Hispanic can include those from Spain and other Spanish speaking places.

Latino seems like the woist [sorry, was watching a little Bugs Bunny earlier] kind of cultural appropriation and as a Dago-American I deplore the theft of my Latin roots by a bunch of lowdown Iberian Conquistadores.

Do not get me started. Does my daughter qualify as a Latino because her surname is now Mexican, even though she doesn't speak much Spanish? What about my son, who is fluent in Spanish but still has my surname?

I sure wish that this would stop being the be-all and end-all of politics!

...the charge that diverse thought on certain topics are counterproductive for the overall health of Black America.

Was that really posited as a legitimate position, RG? It is hard to think of a context in which that would not rightly be considered condescending and insulting--whatever group it is applied to (other than, say, a labor union or a political group). Applied to an entire race of people it is simply--well, racist.

Posted by: boatbuilder | November 19, 2018 at 02:05 PM

Well, let me not misrepresent them or unnecessarily confuse you. Here is verbatim how *they* advertised the event:

Local Color is a project of the Village Square.

"I'm not comfortable with comfort. I’m only comfortable when I’m in a place where I’m constantly learning and growing." -Kanye West (Rolling Stone interview)

Get ready to dive right back into Local Color with November's event: Should African Americans who challenge conventional wisdom automatically be considered 'Uncle Toms'? Or does viewpoint diversity undermine the solidarity of marginalized groups? For kicks, we’ll play a quick round of the “Trading Races” card game where you have to argue that the card you drew represents the person with the higher level of blackness. Good for significant interracial discomfort. https://www.tradingracesgame.com/trading-rappers-videos.html

Snacks on us, drinks and full meals available for purchase.

Continue to dare to be uncomfortable (or super comfortable if the stage is your place to shine) and bust a move (maybe even to some Yeezus) with karaoke following at 7:00!

"The black people I knew came from different places and backgrounds - social, economic, even ethnic - yet the color of our skin was somehow supposed to make us identical in spite of our differences. I didn't buy it. Of course we had all experienced racism in one way or another, but that did not mean we had to think alike” ― Clarence Thomas, My Grandfather's Son

* * *

Facebook is quite intrigued with these folks; they interviewed me last month at the October event,"Believe in Something" - Identity, Protest, Sacrifice, Nike -- which was all about Colin Kaepernick.

Or does viewpoint diversity undermine the solidarity of marginalized groups?

Fair enough, RG; they get credit for taking it on--and for a sensible and provocative quotation from Justice Thomas. But the idea that the answer is anything but a resounding "No" speaks volumes about the state of things. (Or more correctly it's the wrong question--is "solidarity" the primary way to improve things?)

A good way to stay marginalized, especially in the modern world. (But I know you know that--keep fighting the good fight).

Democrats gained control of seven governorships that had previously been held by Republicans. Democrats also gained control of at least one territorial governorship that had previously been held by Republicans. Republicans gained control of one governorship that had previously been held by an independent [Alaska?]

https://ballotpedia.org/State_legislative_elections,_2018
On November 6, 2018, 87 of the nation’s 99 state legislative chambers held regularly-scheduled elections for 6,073 seats, meaning that nearly 82 percent of all state legislative seats were up for election. Heading into the election, Republicans controlled 4,134 of 7,383 legislative seats and 67 legislative chambers, and Democrats controlled 3,123 seats and 32 legislative chambers.

Seven chambers changed partisan control in the November 6 elections, giving Republicans 62 chambers and Democrats 37 chambers. Democrats captured the Colorado State Senate, Maine State Senate, Minnesota House of Representatives, New Hampshire House of Representatives, New Hampshire State Senate, and New York State Senate. Republicans captured the Alaska House of Representatives. … As of November 13, 261 incumbents, including 44 Democrats and 198 Republicans, had been defeated in the general elections

The @WhiteHouse is getting ready for the Christmas season! Thank you to the Smith Family & the National Christmas Tree Association for providing this year's tree. And to our @NatlParkService for their hard work in trimming the tree for the Blue Room. pic.twitter.com/jiyYBwCeXO

I remain very suspicious of serious Democrat efforts to rig a Bill Nelson victory in Florida. I can verify Democrats seriously thought there would be a serious rejection of Donald Trump. We all knew that was nonsense, and our State Legislature elections prove it (to me).

Most Democratic and neutral obervers thought the Democrats stood to gain at least two seats, perhaps as many as four. Instead, they have gained one seat, to bring the balance of power there to a 25-15 Republican majority.

[b] Florida House, 120 members

In the House, Republicans have 77 seats, Democrats have 38 and there are four seats in which the margin is less than 2 percent. Previous to this election, Republicans had 81 seats and Democrats had 39.

Think about those totals in a state they keep talking about nationally as purple.

Purple my ass. We run this state and, frankly, we can do without the doomsday nonsense I'm reading from Selwyn Duke in American Thinker.

If the Trump Administration did their prep, Brenda Snipes should have given us what we need to mandate a tightening of voting integrity nationwide. That should seriously help Republicans in the next few election cycles.

decent presentation. Plenty of academic detail and validity. But it complicates something obvious--- rebellion/resistance of government labels that don't fit the experience of the "labeled."

Latino in American society is synonymous with "hispanic." Back in the late 80s and 90s as the culture wars escalated on campus, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Cubanos *HATED* the term "Hispanic." They still do.

Any association with "Espan~a" was abhorrent to students from inner cities of the East Coast-- New Jork, Jersey, and FLA mainly, who were of PR, D, and C descent---- Latin Americans or "latinos and latinas" for short.

If they were going to be forced into a political block, like "asians", or "indigenous", then Latino was their label of choice. But they knew full well they were Boricua, Cubano, etc. first and foremost.

They understand the uselessness of "racial" labels--- when it came to racial identification and history, all that really matters is White, and Not White (Red, Black, Yellow, or Brown).

Tacking down one's racial identity is a fool's errand. Cultural exploration and identification will enrich one's life and the life of one's descendants. One's ethnic roots are worth learning about and understanding. Why? Subject for another soul grenade.

If one's primary identity is White or Not White, then meaning and context of one's life, knowledge and understanding of ones family trees and bloodlines will be kinda useless.

i vastly misunderstood my way in the world until i learned and came to understand how my own way of moving in the world had been influenced by the navajo side of the family--- logic, symbol formation, speech, writing, human relations, raising children, learning, allergies to western models of teaching etc etc...

People who identify primarily as "white" view me through racial eyes, and are puzzled by my light skin.

It gets even crazier at ceremonies when i'm dressed out for the dance or dressed down for the sweat lodge. White men and women will ask "As a white person, how did you get 'involved in all of this?"

i don't see myself as part of a race. i'm part of a history which embodies one of the Great Conflicts---- injun, spanish conquistadors from Castile, and "Mexican" half-breed (Tarahumara intermarried with spaniards settling in Chihuahua).

Government census labels confuse the issue. when this exploration began at age 8, i went after it with gusto because i loved history. it went through different phases, but the exploration of Navajo/Dineh went the deepest as Maw aged. At age 60 she asked me to "bring back the old ways to her grandchildren." i committed.

that required letting go of the part of our histories where we were racialized socially and economically. it required immersion in the spiritual/material culture of the Dineh and Apache bands and clans from where my family lines emerged.

now i'm offering my grandchildren, Helio Aurelius and Estella Ramona, who live in Belgium, being raised by their Belgian father and my daughter as Belgians---- a slice of their 1/8 ancestry in the Dineh line.

they're learning the Bear's path. We began two years ago when Estella was 4. Helio was 8. their maw decided they should start together. they are learning to speak Dineh, right along with me. in two years we hope to have them here for their first family sweat lodge.

they "look" white. but they aren't being raised white. the best way to debunk race and racialized thought is to abandon it in every endeavor to understand one's root culture for the sake of emulsifying the spiritual and material aspects of it in today's living.

what else is there?

Culture is a way of living, a means of survival.

Iggy! My best friend of all time is first generation American with parents hailing from Pescara. They migrated before the war broke out to Toronto, then here to Califas (Union City).

Dave,
That was incredible.
Why are you late?
Well, I got my face stuck in a car’s grille.
Bullshit, you were out drinking again.
No, serious, my face was stuck in a car. Some nice guys said to check twitter later.

JNJ, I get why they want to dump the M9. But a SIG 320 will “change modern combat”? BS.

What I’ll never get about these kinds of procurements is why they don’t just buy off the shelf. Glock would sell G17s and G19s for, what, $200? Track record, faster to deliver, get more of ‘em for the budget available.

This maybe fanciful imagination but one thing governments like to do is grant monopolies:

“Niebla also alleged that Operation Fast and Furious was part of an agreement to finance and arm the cartel in exchange for information used to take down its rivals”. The details of the unholy agreement between the DEA and the Sinaloa cartel was that the DEA would allow 80% of all drug shipments into the United States in exchange for intelligence information on the other drug cartels. Why would the DEA want intelligence on the other cartels, yet, they would allow the Sinaloa cartel to continue with their drug operations right under the noses of the DEA. “The agents stated that this arrangement had been approved by high-ranking officials and federal prosecutors,” the Zambada-Niebla lawyer wrote”.

After being extradited to Chicago in February 2010, Zambada-Niebla argued that he was also “immune from arrest or prosecution” because he actively provided information to U.S. federal agents.
Niebla stated that “The DEA said it was OK to run drugs into America”.
Loretta Lynch was the front person for a multinational drug empire.
Niebla also alleged that Operation Fast and Furious was part of an agreement to finance and arm the cartel in exchange for information used to take down its rivals. This resurfaces the issue that Attorney General Eric Holder knew about the gun-running arrangements in Fast and Furious as we all knew he did.

When I was a kid my dad's welding truck was hit from behind by two insurance adjusters.

He had a nice Ford pickup with robust custom bumpers.

He was coming back from Gillette and noticed a wreck on the highway ahead, He could tell the guy behind him was inattentive so he began to slow down early and the guy hit him once. My dad stopped short because of the wreck and sure enough, the guy hit him again.

The insurance adjuster passenger was asleep and when he woke up his head was in the glove box. I guess the door popped loose on impact and a lot of people didn't wear seatbelts in the 70's so there you go.

After a year of cities and states groveling at Amazon’s feet and offering to hand over billions in public money to Jeff Bezos for HQ2, this week the official announcement came: No single city will be a “big winner.”

Instead, this was a routine corporate expansion, with Amazon opening new offices in Long Island City, New York and in Arlington, Virginia. In return, state and local governments will hand Amazon more than $4 billion in direct cash and tax giveaways.

Of course there's a bunch of stuff that could have been written by Occasional Cortex, but also this:

If Amazon wanted to open satellite offices in New York and the D.C. metro area, all it had to do was rent office space. Instead, it lured over 200 cities into a sweepstakes designed to glean as much economic data and tax giveaways as possible. And to top it all off, Amazon required every applicant to sign a nondisclosure agreement, cutting the public completely out of the process.

New York State’s economic development programs (read: corporate giveaways) are already the most expensive in the nation, making up 76% of the state’s gross tax revenue. And despite that enormous investment, it ranks dead last in returns.

That's called crossing the streams, it's like a soccer franchise helmed by David Beckham, fronted by some Malaysian tycoons that will cost the city of Miami only 800 million, and there'll be no tax payer contribution, is this thing on?

Will there ever be a President of the United States who is Jewish? Many Americans doubt that will ever happen, yet some scholars believe that there already has been a president who was actually Jewish. John and Mary Huffman, a German Jewish couple, immigrated to the U.S. and landed in Maryland. They moved to Kentucky and, finally, the family settled in Texas. Their daughter, Ruth, was Jewish since both of her parents were Jewish. Ruth married a non-Jew and had a daughter, Rebekah Baines, who, as the daughter of a Jewish mother was Jewish.

Rebekah married Samuel Johnson, and their son was Jewish, even if he did not know it. His middle name is his mother’s maiden name, and we know him as Lyndon Baines Johnson. LBJ, although Jewish by birth, did not consider himself a Jew and worshipped at a Disciples of Christ Church. LBJ had an affinity for Jews and went out of his way to assist Jews.

I am not a handgun expert so I can't answer your question. I assume these are modified versions of the Glock 17 and 19.
The story mentioned that they had input from SOF forces, might that mean different sights, grips, rail mount or some such thing.

"Even Army Chief of Staff Mark Miley expressed exasperation with the process, saying, "We're not figuring out the next lunar landing. This is a pistol...You give me $17 million on a credit card, and I'll call Cabela's tonight, and I'll outfit every soldier, sailor, airman and Marine with a pistol for $17 million."

“Our legal system is structured to favor private property,” he said, insisting that “people would like to have the city government be able to determine which building goes where, how high it will be, who gets to live in it, what the rent will be.”

For good measure, he added: “If I had my druthers, the city government would determine every single plot of land, how development would proceed. And there would be very stringent requirements around income levels and rents. That’s a world I’d love to see.”

It controls the markets around it; delivery, distribution, manufacturing, and exploits the US postal service for areas it can't reach.
The market cap is 740 billion and they have so much cash on hand they're giving out business loans and mortgages.
That's right, they've gotten into the residential housing market.

I've noticed that our postal courier had delivered mail as late as 7:30 PM lately. Earlier the mail arrived around 3-4 PM. I have also recently noticed packages delivered before the regular mail arrives.

I wonder if the USPS is putting more priority on packages than first class mail?

you know you want a thermomix™ .For a few days you can get it at Zero percent financing for 12 months--what a great Christmas present For yourself, your family, those you love. Contact me if interested.Special deal available only Friday after Thanksgiving thru Cyber Monday

If Amazon wanted to open satellite offices in New York and the D.C. metro area, all it had to do was rent office space. Instead, it lured over 200 cities into a sweepstakes designed to glean as much economic data and tax giveaways as possible.